Anton Fischer (Cardinal)

Antonius Cardinal Fischer (1911)

Coat of arms of Cardinal Antonius Fischer

Grave slab of Cardinal Fischer, Cologne Cathedral, engraving from the biography of Pf. Johann Schmitz, 1915

Antonius Hubert Cardinal Fischer (born May 30, 1840 in Jülich ; † July 30, 1912 in Bad Neuenahr ) was a German Roman Catholic theologian and Archbishop of Cologne from 1902 to 1912 .

Life

Anton Fischer was the son of the elementary school teacher Wilhelm Josef Fischer and the brother of the Jülich publisher Joseph Fischer. He first attended the rectorate school in his hometown and from 1853 to 1857 the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Cologne . He then studied Catholic theology at the University of Münster and then at the University of Bonn . In Bonn he joined the academic Catholic student association Unitas -Salia in 1860 . After the practical training in Cologne Seminary he received in Cologne on September 2, 1863 ordination . Since 1864 worked as a religion teacher in Essen, where he monastery Commissioner Augustine Canon women BMV was doctorate he 1886 in Tübingen Dr. theol. After his application for a professorship in Bonn, submitted in 1888, was unsuccessful, Archbishop Philipp Krementz appointed him cathedral chapter in Cologne that same year .

A year later, on February 14, 1889, Fischer was appointed titular bishop of Iuliopolis and auxiliary bishop in Cologne. The episcopal ordination donated him on May 1 of that year, Archbishop Philip Krementz; Co- consecrators were Franciscus Boermans , Bishop of Roermond , and Heinrich Feiten , Auxiliary Bishop in Trier .

After he was promoted to cathedral dean in 1895 , the Cologne cathedral chapter elected the auxiliary bishop on November 6, 1902 with 13 out of 15 votes to be Archbishop of Cologne, to which he was then appointed on November 26, 1902. As a candidate for bishop he had been on the lists of the respective cathedral chapters in Münster in 1889 , in Paderborn in 1891 and in Osnabrück and Cologne in 1899 , but he was repeatedly deleted by the Prussian government. Pope Leo XIII. took him on June 23, 1903 as a cardinal priest with the titular church Santi Nereo ed Achilleo in the college of cardinals . He took part in the 1903 conclave that elected Pius X as Pope.

The conservative archbishop was the first to reverse his predecessor's steps in priestly education and returned to Cardinal Krementz's strict training line. In this context, there was then a public scandal with the Bonn church historian Heinrich Schrörs, which could only be settled through the intervention of the Ministry of Culture, which put the archbishop in his place. Fischer operated more convincingly in the trade union dispute , where he campaigned for interdenominational unions.

Fischer called the Cologne Rabbi Abraham Frank to up his anti-Jewish to report statements within the clergy of the archdiocese of Cologne, he will not have it, and then wanted to take action against it. According to Frank, this actually happened on two occasions.

The fisherman suffering from diabetes died on July 30, 1912 in Bad Neuenahr , where he was staying for a cure . His remains were transferred to Cologne and buried there in the episcopal tomb of Cologne Cathedral .

Cardinal Antonius Fischer was friends with Bishop Emil August Allgeyer , Apostolic Vicar of Zanzibar in German East Africa. He had also consecrated him bishop on April 25, 1897 in the Spiritaner mission house Knechtsteden . After the episcopal ordination, the Vicar Apostolic announced that he would call his first newly founded mission station " Fisherman's Town " in gratitude to the consecrator , which he actually did. It was in German East Africa , in the Rombo district, on Kilimanjaro .

literature

• Johann Schmitz: Antonius Cardinal Fischer, Archbishop of Cologne. His life and work. Bachem, Cologne 1915.
• Robert Haaß :  Fischer, Anton Hubert. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 5, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1961, ISBN 3-428-00186-9 , p. 179 ( digitized version ).
• Eduard Hegel : The Archdiocese of Cologne between the restoration of the 19th century and the restoration of the 20th century (= history of the Archdiocese of Cologne, vol. 5). Cologne 1987, ISBN 3-7616-0873-X , p. 93 f.

Web links

Commons : Anton Hubert Fischer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Fischer, Anton Hubert. In: Salvador Miranda : The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. ( Florida International University website), accessed August 22, 2016.
• Entry on Anton Hubert Fischer on catholic-hierarchy.org ; accessed on August 22, 2016.
• On the 100th anniversary of the death of Archbishop Antonius Cardinal Fischer ( Memento from February 10, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Johann Schmitz: Antonius Cardinal Fischer, Archbishop of Cologne: His life and work. Bachem, Cologne 1915.

predecessor	Office	successor
Hubert Theophil Simar	Archbishop of Cologne 1902–1912	Felix von Hartmann
-	Auxiliary Bishop in Cologne 1889–1902	Joseph Müller